One In Jesus

Ransom

The explanation for how the atonement works found in Matthew and Mark is found in —

(Mat 20:26-28 ESV)  ²⁶ “It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,  ²⁷ and whoever would be first among you must be your slave,  ²⁸ even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

(Mar 10:43-45 ESV)  ⁴³ “But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant,  ⁴⁴ and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all.  ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

What does “ransom” mean? To modern ears, a ransom is what you pay a kidnapper. How does that make any sense at all? Continue reading →

Abraham’s covenant with God

This makes better sense if we try to think like First Century Jews — and so look for understanding in the Torah — not so much the Law of Moses as God’s covenant with Abraham.

(Rom 4:23-25 NET) ²³ But the statement [righteousness] was credited to [Abraham] was not written only for Abraham’s sake, ²⁴ but also for our sake, to whom it will be credited, those who believe in the one who raised Jesus our Lord from the dead. ²⁵ He was given over because of our transgressions and was raised for the sake of our justification.

Paul describes our salvation by faith as based on God’s covenant with Abraham, in which God credits Abraham’s faith as righteousness. Somehow, in those three verses, Paul leaps all the way from Abraham having faith to the cross producing forgiveness for our sins. But that’s not an obvious connection. Where in God’s covenant with Abraham do we find the cross? Continue reading →

The Suffering Servant

But then again, we’ve hardly answered the original question, which is just how is it that the cross results in our forgiveness. And before we go on to other theories, we have to consider —

(Isa 53:4-8 ESV)  ⁴ Surely he has borne our griefs and carried our sorrows; yet we esteemed him stricken, smitten by God, and afflicted. Continue reading →

I guess I need to pause for a moment to clarify a couple of things.

* First, I do not for a minute deny that God’s wrath is real and important. Indeed, Paul’s theological discourse in Romans begins with —

(Rom 1:18-19 NET)  ¹⁸ For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of people who suppress the truth by their unrighteousness,  ¹⁹ because what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. Continue reading →

We in the Churches of Christ don’t spend much time talking about atonement theory. Rather, our focus has been how the individual appropriates atonement for his own benefit. We focus on the question: “What must I do to be saved?”

Atonement theory, however, asks the opposite question: “What did God do to save us?” Or “Just how is it that we’re saved by the death of Jesus?” Continue reading →